Commemorate this senseless traffic death with delicious cookies

Cars are terrible. It’s one thing to know that, in theory. It’s another thing entirely to have it brought home by the death of a family member.

Katie Fisher was 24 when she died in a car accident. That, on its own, is a sad story, but it got worse. The other driver was underinsured, and his policy didn’t pay much to make amends for what had happened. Fisher’s insurance policy was better. It was supposed to pay the difference between what the other driver’s insurance company could pay and what damages her estate might be entitled to. Her family actually needed that money to help pay off her student loans.

But the insurance company wouldn’t give it to them, so they had to go to court. Under the relevant state laws, that meant suing the other driver. When Fisher’s family sat in the courtroom, they saw that lawyers from her insurance company were working with the other driver — to convince the jury that he was not negligent and that the insurance company needn’t pay anything.

That’s a pretty terrible thing to go through.

But Matt Fisher, Katie’s brother, is trying to squeeze at least a little bit of positive out of this pile of crap. He’s declared today — Katie’s birthday — to be Katie Fisher Day, a day to “to honor her memory and to show each other some measure of the love that Katie showed to us.” Participating is really simple. Katie used to send her brother cookies every week in college. To celebrate Katie Fisher Day, bake or buy cookies and send them to someone you love. That’s it.